Metodologías de investigación cualitativa de la función social de la biblioteca pública

Three qualitative methodologies that can be applied to the study of the vulnerable users of public libraries are described and proposed: The interview, the participant observation and the discussion group. In order to validate these methodologies, it is described the process of using them in a research carried out in the Regional Library of Murcia, in which we researched the motivations and main uses, the social interaction in the library, the effects of the crisis in the library organization and in these users and their degree of competence and digital empowerment. It was concluded the usefulness of these methodologies for user studies, identifying factors that are beyond statistical techniques, such as the different discourses on socialization that take place in the library and the valuation that vulnerable users make of relationships and learning Performed in the same